Chapter 187: Minas Tirith

When the army led by Allen and Cirdan was resting in Aldburg.

Eoloth dispatched a messenger to deliver the news of the reinforcements' arrival to Sengel.

After all, the main force had entered Gondor from within Rohan, and Eoloth had a responsibility to notify his Prince in advance.

Regarding the arrival of the reinforcements, Sengel and Alger were naturally joyful, especially at such a difficult moment in the war.

Due to the fall of Cair Andros, vast territories near Minas Tirith were in an undefended state for the enemy.

This included not only Anorien, located in the north, but also the vast land near the White City, the Pelennor Fields.

This fertile land was the essence of Minas Tirith, standing with a large number of orchards, farms, wine cellars, livestock pens, and other facilities; it could be said to be a land of vast fields and lush fruit trees.

The supplies produced every year at this difficult time not only supported the operation of Minas Tirith but were also the fundamental basis for ensuring the combat effectiveness of the various reinforcements.

In war, ensuring the soldiers on the front line are well-fed is an extremely important matter.

And the Council of Gondor, responsible for directing this war, could by no means allow this land to be destroyed by the enemy.

Therefore, at the request of the Steward of Gondor, the Rohan reinforcements led by Sengel, together with the few hundred infantrymen that Alger had struggled to scrape together, were nailed firmly near the Druadan Forest.

At the same time, with the help of the beacon hill of Amon Din, they guarded against the Mordor army rushing out of Cair Andros.

It could be said that Sauron, using a force of elite Variags and a small number of Wolf Riders, had managed to hold the many lords of the Council of Gondor in his grip.

Forcing them to dispatch heavy troops to guard this land, lest the granary of Minas Tirith be destroyed by the enemy.

If this fertile land were lost, and if Gondor still wished to continue defending Minas Tirith, then it would need to spend a greater price to mobilize supplies from other territories in the south.

In that case, Gondor's soft underbelly would likewise be exposed to the eyes of the swift-moving Umbar Pirates.

However, if Minas Tirith were abandoned, or rather, if the White City were breached by the enemy, then Gondor could declare its demise.

Because at that time, Lebennin would be in a state of being attacked from both sides by the enemy, and the Numenoreans, relying on their remaining strength, would simply be unable to take back the river defense line.

Then, facing the even more powerful army of Mordor, destruction would merely be a matter of time.

The Steward of Gondor, Turgon, could not fathom why this war was being fought like this.

In the historical documents of the White City, there was never a record of the enemy having such a massive offensive.

And comparing Gondor's strength to that of several hundred years ago, it could only be said to be barely maintaining.

Compared to before the Kin-strife and the Great Plague, it was even less comparable.

Turgon, who was directing the entire battle from the Tower of Ecthelion, was by now worried sick, and the phenomenon of coughing up blood had become very frequent.

It was truly hard on this old man of over ninety years.

Turgon also knew that his time was up, yet the lack of clarity in the war situation kept him from being able to cast aside his responsibilities and head to an unknown world.

So, upon hearing that the Elf reinforcements had arrived at the Pelennor Fields and had conveniently routed a large-scale enemy force.

Turgon was overjoyed, and bracing his body, he set up a grand banquet in the Feast Hall of the White City to host these allies who had come from thousands of miles away to support him.

And at the same time, he arranged for his guards to spread the news of the reinforcements' arrival throughout the White City, in order to soothe those residents who were deeply worried about the war situation.

Many residents of the White City had already taken large amounts of grain and fled toward the White Mountains behind the White City, and the Steward Turgon did not stop these cowardly residents.

If it were not for his son Ecthelion, who had held firm in the western district of Osgiliath under the frenzied attack of the Haradrim, protecting the safety of Minas Tirith.

Turgon would likely have issued the order himself long ago for the women and children to flee the fires of war.

Even in his view, the outcome of this war was a fog, let alone for those ordinary civilians.

The army of Allen and Cirdan did not, in fact, stay on the land of Anorien for too long.

Even though Alger had requested with earnest words that these reinforcements arrive and, together with the troops stationed here, attack Cair Andros to change Gondor's current passive situation in one stroke.

But Cirdan and Allen did not immediately agree to this idea of Alger's.

Late that night, Allen took his personal guards and arrived near Cair Andros, using his own abilities to check the current defensive strength on the island.

Upon returning, Allen very seriously rejected Alger's request.

Even though the rejected Alger was very sad, Allen could only tell him with extreme regret that for the entire campaign, this was a mistaken move.

Although Cair Andros was an island over ten kilometers long, its area was sufficient for nearly ten thousand troops to deploy and attack the fortress where the enemy was stationed on the island.

But in Allen's observation, there were at least one thousand to two thousand Variags garrisoned in that fortress, and most of the soldiers constantly guarding the city walls wore lamellar or chain mail.

And the weapons in their hands were varied: spears, greatswords, maces, great axes, Fir Bows, heavy crossbows, large shields, and so on and so forth.

Judging from their level of elite status, these Variags were far more powerful than the Easterlings Allen had once defeated; they were just somewhat scarce in number, but for guarding a fortress on an island, they were more than enough.

Besides this, Allen also saw hideous and terrifying Catapults inside the fortress; under his gaze, they seemed to be entwined with evil dark power.

It was unlikely that this thing was used simply to throw stones.

Although this type of equipment was usually used in sieges, it could also play a huge role when defending a city.

And besides this, on the east bank of the Anduin River, a brightly lit camp stood there.

Dozens of flags with black backgrounds and red eyes fluttered above the camp, and Allen, with his excellent eyesight, saw one among them that was unique yet extremely awkward.

It was a pattern that looked like a moth; the first time Allen saw it, his heart was filled with disgust, and he knew that it was the symbol of the Nazgul.

This meant that at least one Ringwraith riding a Fell Beast was garrisoned in the camp on the opposite bank.

The Ringwraith was not much; Allen now had sufficient confidence to defeat these servants of the Dark Lord in a duel or in a one-versus-many situation.

And the Elf troops led by Cirdan were for the most part not afraid of the aura of fear emitted by the Ringwraiths; they could certainly fight.

But for an island fortress that was easy to defend and hard to attack like this, coupled with the coordinated defense of the enemy camp.

The army of Allen and Cirdan, even with the help of the Rohan Cavalry, could simply not complete the objective in a short time.

The only method would be to slowly pile up human lives.

However, neither the troops under Allen's command nor the Elves led by Cirdan had a sufficient number to, like the Orcish army, recklessly climb the city walls.

Even if the warriors could do it and were willing to do so, Allen and Cirdan would not issue such an order.

The losses from doing so would be too great; it was very likely that after the war ended, these two reinforcement groups would have to return home due to horrific casualties.

And Sengel, who had arrived to support a step earlier, could understand Allen's decision.

When the Second War had just begun, Sengel, who had arrived with his army, had wanted to retake Cair Andros, which had been occupied by the enemy.

To achieve this goal, Minas Tirith ordered Alger to cooperate fully, and even drew a portion of the elite from the already scarce garrison, letting Saruman lead them to assist Sengel in completing this objective.

However, the result was exceptionally dismal.

Even with the White Wizard's magic-filled language capable of countering the fear the Ringwraiths spread among the army, and the large number of Rohan Cavalry able to pin down the enemy camp on the other side of the river.

The army attacking the fortress, however, met with extremely stubborn resistance from the Variags.

Even after spending half a month and nearly a thousand soldiers losing their lives there, Sengel had to announce the failure of the siege.

Because reinforcements from Minas Morgul and those coming out of the Black Gate were already not far from their position; if they did not retreat, they would face encirclement by the enemy.

Although Sengel did not stop Alger from making this request, Sengel was mentally prepared for Allen's refusal.

And Alger, under the persuasion of his relative Malhebi, also gave up this idea.

In fact, he also knew this was not an easy matter, but watching his own people struggle to survive under the threat of the enemy, he always wanted to do something.

After Allen and Cirdan discovered that there was no opportunity to change the war situation at Cair Andros, they naturally would not stay there for long, and immediately set off for Minas Tirith.

They needed to obtain more information about the battlefield there to decide the next war plan.

And Sauron, at the Tower of Barad-dur, with the help of the Palantir, naturally knew of the arrival of the reinforcements.

In fact, before those Demon Wolves fled back to Mordor, Sauron had already learned the whole sequence of events from his two collapsed servants.

The failure of the interception plan was a significant blow to Sauron; the most direct manifestation was that the Mouth of Sauron, who led the team out, was subjected to extremely terrifying torture as punishment for not crossing the river to support the friendly forces.

Because that was Sauron's last chance to maintain a dominant position and the most suitable interception point for the Elves to head south, but it failed due to interference from many sides.

And the cowardly fellow, the Mouth of Sauron, actually failed to seize the final opportunity to cause more damage to the enemy, and instead slunk back to Mordor.

This was something Sauron could not tolerate.

But the Mouth of Sauron did not die under the torture; after all, he was still highly valued by his master, and even after the torture, his status did not drop much, remaining an adjutant of the Tower of Barad-dur.

This greatly disappointed the other Black Numenoreans, who had thought their opportunity had arrived.

It was just that Ashur, who had come to report the news a step earlier, did not have such good luck as the Mouth of Sauron.

Under the transformation of Sauron's Dark Magic, he had become a creature that was neither human nor ghost, but his personal strength was indeed much stronger, and he had also learned some Dark Magic.

Only waiting for the transformation to be completed, Sauron would send the greatly empowered Ashur back to the Easterlings, letting him continue to complete his mission there.

Regarding the arrival of the Elf reinforcements, the Dark Lord did not feel much frustration, because the initiative on the battlefield was still firmly in his hands.

After learning the news of the failed interception, Sauron ordered Angmar to lead the army of Minas Morgul to set out, letting this army, which was originally intended as reinforcements for various places, go to help the Umbar Pirates accelerate their pace of attacking Pelargir.

Next, Sauron wanted to use Pelargir as the breakthrough point for this war; once Pelargir was captured, the pirates' Ships could sail upstream along the Anduin River and directly attack the flank of Osgiliath.

By then, the Mordor army, which could directly face the Pelennor Fields, would be like a sharp blade capable of slaughtering Gondor at any time, sooner or later exhausting Gondor and the reinforcements arriving from all over.

Sauron had sufficient confidence in this point.

However, even so, upon learning that the enemy reinforcements had arrived, Sauron still had his servants lead a small and flexible scout unit to reconnoiter the full picture of the enemy army on the Pelennor Fields.

Even for Sauron, it was impossible to use the Palantir to monitor an army of thousands for a long time; this was a very exhausting matter.

Moreover, his energy could not all be spent on watching the crystal stone.

That war in the Brown Lands still caused great damage to Sauron's power; at this moment, he needed to expend more energy to breed subordinates sufficient for him to complete his ambitions.

Even for Sauron, this was not an easy task.

Then sending out a scout unit was the best choice at the moment.

In fact, this scout unit did not confront Allen and Cirdan's army at all; after being discovered, Uvatha the Horseman, one of the Nine Ringwraiths, directly led the troops and retreated.

He was only reconnoitering the enemy's situation and passing the general news to his master.

But the scene of Allen leading troops to pursue the enemy was coincidentally seen by Gondorians in the fields, and by the time this news reached Minas Tirith, it had completely changed.

"Our reinforcements are very powerful; they easily killed thousands of enemies on the plains."

By the time Allen and Cirdan's army appeared at the outer walls of Minas Tirith under the cheers of all the Gondorian people, the number of dead enemies in the rumors had multiplied several times over.

When Allen learned of these messages, he highly suspected that it was the work of the Grey Wizard who had set off earlier.

Exaggerating one's own combat power and combat results is also an important means of restoring morale.

At such a critical moment, there was simply no way to care whether these messages were lies; as long as they could be effective, it was enough to be gratifying.